Mandela free after 27 years

Mr Nelson Mandela walked out of prison a free man yesterday, and within hours told an ecstatic crowd of supporters in Cape Town that the armed struggle against apartheid would continue.

In his first public speech since he was jailed 27 years ago, the African National Congress leader said the guerrilla war launched in 1960 was "a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid. We have no option but to continue."

He added: "Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts. To relax our efforts now would be a mistake which generations to come will not be able to forgive."

The "immediate ending of the state of emergency and the freeing of all political prisoners" was necessary before negotiations with the government could start.

Addressing the international community, he said: "To lift sanctions now would be to run the risk of aborting the process towards the complete eradication of apartheid."

The rally in Cape Town came at the end of a dramatic day which earlier saw Mr Mandela walk to freedom through the gates of Victor Verster jail near Cape Town, hand in hand with his wife, Winnie, to meet a waiting crowd of supporters and the ranks of the world's media.

He greeted the crowd with a clenched fist salute, then walked back to his car before leaving at the head of a long cavalcade for Cape Town along a route lined with emotional well-wishers.

Celebrations erupted throughout the country at the news of Mr Mandela's release. But in Cape Town police fired birdshot and rubber bullets to disperse parts of the crowd awaiting him after youths allegedly smashed windows and looted shops on the square.

Doctors worked by torchlight only 100 yards from where Mr Mandela spoke to treat scores of people with gunshot wounds and a South African Council of Churches spokesman said at least two were killed.

Elsewhere, residents said they had unconfirmed reports that police travelling in a car through Mdantsane township in the independent homeland of Ciskei shot dead three people among a crowd celebrating the release.

Police fired shotguns and teargas at a crowd of rejoicing blacks in the Duncan Village township outside East London, an Indian Ocean port bordering Ciskei, residents said.

Mr Mandela's speech was finely balanced between the demands of his largely black constituency and magnanimity towards whites and repeated hope for peace.

Mandela's first words to the cheering crowd contained a message of peace. "I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all," he said. "I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people."

Thanking South African anti-apartheid groups and the world community for campaigning for his release, he urged that the struggle against apartheid had to be intensified on all fronts.

But almost immediately he expressed the hope that a climate could be created for negotiations so that the armed struggle would no longer be necessary.

And he made a special point of pleading with whites to join the struggle against apartheid. He paid tribute, too, to the President, Mr FW de Klerk, who had gone further than any other National Party president towards reaching settlement. But blacks were still suffering under the Nationalist government, he said.

Mr Mandela's release was shown live on dozens of television channels around the world but South African viewers had to wait for some minutes before his appearance was broadcast.

Mrs Thatcher abruptly called off a press briefing she was due to give on the steps of Downing Street last night to hail Mr Mandela's freedom.

Downing Street denied the cancellation was because of Mr Mandela's call for the armed struggle and international sanctions to continue. It was said that she felt her earlier comments were sufficient.